We caught a movie over at the Raj Mandir theater in Hindi. The movie, Khakee (Khaki) was a long three hour movie about a police chief and staff, something about a corrupt police officer, a girl love affair (complete with Bollywood dance numbers), and a mistaken identity that resolves the plot, thrown together with lots of crash, chase, cheesy gore and good explosion scenes, and a RayBan wearing cool guys rumbling through a traditional cow market creating a stampede with their firearms. It was a Titanic of a movie, everything you could put in a movie was in it.
The theater itself holds about 1,500 people and it was about half full. (The India vs. Pakistan ‘test’ 5-day Cricket match is underway.) That did not dampen the clapping, hooting, laughing, clapping and cellphones during the movie though. The theater is a cousin from a long-gone era of theaters in America. The architecture was fantastic. Green lighting making it look like the interior could have been from a 1940’s alien movie set, long drape curtains, plush reclining seats, air-conditioning and a great sound system. A full experience regardless of what was playing on screen.
Our weirdest moment of the day (and there are ever so many to chose from), was when two teenage girls ran across the lobby and demanded our autographs on a 100 Rupee bill. We figure it was Derrell’s long hair, earrings and sunglasses perched on top of his head. It was a rather silly moment, but maybe we can count it up as one of our minutes of lifetime fame?
Derrell is currently posting some back entries starting with March 13 (Agra), so we should be finally caught up with India.
This afternoon it is back over to McDonald’s (which has a surprisingly good espresso machine) for a safe lunch. (We may recover from our second round of food poisoning yet.) Then another fine 20+ hour train ride down to Bombay.
Hmm… we are wondering if we can catch Lord of the Rings in Bombay. We heard from two different sets of travelers that it was playing, and it may possibly be one of the loudest audience participation movies that one could attend in India, and who could ignore air-conditioning when it is offered? Ah, the thought of air-conditioning….
